terrible_tv_showsfandomcom-20200215-history
Looney Tunes (1965-1969)
Even though most of the original Looney Tunes shorts were well received by critics and fans, the same can't be said for the final golden years, which were panned by them. This article will be talking about the Looney Tunes cartoons from 1965 to 1969. Why These Years Suck #Due to the shutdown of Warner Bros. Cartoons, which produced the original cartoons, these cartoons had to be produced by outsourced production to DePatie-Freleng Enterprises until Warner Bros.-Seven Arts reopened the studio in 1967. #Budget problems were heavily present during this era, which became increasingly more noticeable as the years progressed. #Likewise, tight budget and other restrictions only allowed the studios to use a minimal set of characters, most notably Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. Yes, other popular Looney Tunes characters such as Bugs Bunny, Foghorn Leghorn, Tweety, Pepe Le Pew, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Marvin the Martian and Taz are nowhere to be found in this era. #Poorly-done animation that much like the Gene Deitch cartoons of Tom and Jerry, the post-1962 Woody Woodpecker cartoons, the 1960's Famous Studios cartoons from Paramount'','' and the Terrytoons, ranges from being bland to plain ugly and simplistic. It bottoms out with the Alex Lovy-directed Warner Bros.-Seven Arts cartoons, which have animation that's probably even worse than anything Paul J. Smith or Gene Deitch ever put in their cartoons. #Awfully weak writing, especially by Cal Howard. #The "bullseye" opening and closing title cards and the familiar version of "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" theme have been replaced with a new "abstract" intro that was first used on "Now Hear This" (keep in mind that this was designed just for that cartoon). This new intro uses a very clunky version of the aforementioned theme from Bill Lava and is mostly consisting of moving lines, showing how low the budget of this era was. The closing title card doesn't use a different version of the aforementioned theme song too and is a cut version of Bill Lava's theme from earlier. This theme would get "lighter" variants during the Seven Arts cartoons with less instruments. #Rudy Larriva's eleven Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons (collectively nicknamed the “Larriva Eleven”) have been considered by many as the worst Road Runner cartoons due to the poor animation, weak gags and repetitive music. Notably, these cartoons lack the Latin phrases gag that was used in the previous Road Runner cartoons, recycles the same "coyote fall" and explosion scenes, and often breaks the "laws" that are from the earlier Road Runner cartoons. #Daffy Duck has been badly flanderized from a mischievous prankster in the original cartoons to a grouchy, humorless, sadistic, and bitter jerk. Daffy in these cartoons will try anything in order to get what he wants and doesn't care about anyone else; in fact, he's so despicable in these shorts that he acted more like a villain than a hero, which makes it very hard to root for him. Even though he was somewhat flanderized after July 1948, and with this trait was previously seen in a few cartoons like "The Iceman Ducketh", it is a major part of him at this point and is most notable starting with "Moby Duck". All the Daffy/Speedy shorts such as "Well Worn Daffy" and "Assault and Peppered", as well as "Tease for Two" (Daffy's only pairing with the Goofy Gophers) are the worst offenders for using this characterization of Daffy as examples. In fact, they're just not funny at all, and they are so anti-Daffy that they make these unwatchable every time he inflicts abuse on innocent characters such as Speedy Gonzales and the Goofy Gophers. Most of these really show they had Daffy play at his absolute worst. #* To add salt to the wound, the butchery of Daffy's character in this era was first done by both Friz Freleng and Robert McKimson, two veteran directors who previously worked on the Daffy Duck cartoons in the classic era, as opposed to new writers/directors who never worked on any of the original Looney Tunes cartoons before, all because DePatie-Freleng Enterprises needed a new antagonist for Speedy Gonzales to replace other Looney Tunes antagonists who have been retired from this era such as Sylvester and Yosemite Sam. Why would Freleng and McKimson ruin Daffy's character so badly in this era just for that reason alone? #Likewise, the Road Runner is also flanderized, especially in the Larriva Eleven, as he is changed from an innocent and lovable bird into a sadistic annoyance. The Road Runner in the Larriva Eleven will actually try to harm the Coyote without going "Beep beep", such as activating a log trap on Wile E. in "Tired and Feathered" and pushing an invisible boulder over the Coyote on "Clippety Clobbered". This is not only against the Road Runner's character, but also against the "laws" established in the Chuck Jones cartoons. In addition, the Road Runner also does a dance while going "Beep beep" when the Coyote is defeated. #Due to the studios only being allowed to use a minimal set of characters, this era shows some awkwardly mismatched character pairings among the classic characters, most notably the Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzales pairings. The problem is that unlike past character pairings such as the Sylvester/Tweety and the Bugs Bunny/Elmer Fudd pairings, the Daffy/Speedy pairings are a horrible mismatch due to poor chemistry between the duo. #Bland music from Bill Lava and Walter Greene that doesn't sound like it would belong in Looney Tunes. What's worse is that, in the Larriva Eleven, all of the music would be repeated for each episode. #Limited stock sound effects, which got worse during the Seven Arts cartoons. "The Great Carrot Train Robbery" and "Flying Circus" are most infamous for the limited amount of awful and annoying Hanna-Barbera sound effects used. #Some of the cartoons' plots in these eras are repetitive rehashes of past cartoons. For examples; #* "Moby Duck" - "Canned Feud". #* "Assault and Peppered" - "Bunker Hill Bunny". #* "A Haunting We Will Go" - "Broomstick Bunny". #* "Flying Circus" - "Dumb Patrol 1964". #* Some cartoons such as "Road to Andalay", "Cats and Bruises", "The Wild Chase" and "Mucho Locos" have their plots being entirely mish-mashes of animation and gags from past cartoons, for example; #** "The Wild Chase" constantly re-uses animation and gags from the Chuck Jones-directed Road Runner shorts "Wild About Hurry", "Zoom and Bored" and "Hopalong Casualty". #** "Cats and Bruises" for example entirely re-uses animation and gags from the Speedy/Sylvester cartoons "Here Today, Gone Tamale" and "The Pied Piper of Guadalupe" and the Tweety/Sylvester cartoons "Dog Pounded", "A Pizza Tweety-Pie" and "Canary Row". #** "Mucho Locos" re-uses animation and gags from the Daffy Duck shorts "Robin Hood Daffy", "Deduce, You Say", and "China Jones" and Speedy Gonzales shorts "Tortilla Flaps" and "Mexicali Shmoes". #Most of the cartoons are either unfunny, repetitive, frustrating, or boring. #Tons of animation errors, for example in "Cats and Bruises" during a brief shot showing the bulldogs in the dog pound, the bulldogs appear to be completely static and their mouths do not move in sync to the barking sounds. #The Seven Arts cartoons worsened most of the problems stated above. At this point, Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzales were the only classic characters left. To replace the remaining characters, Alex Lovy had to create a new breed of characters, the most notable being Cool Cat and Merlin the Magic Mouse, many of which were hated by many. In fact, only Cool Cat, Colonel Rimfire, and Spooky made any prominent appearances after the Seven Arts era. #They didn't even bother to hire Mel Blanc to voice any of the Seven Arts cartoons aside from the Daffy/Speedy shorts and the two Bunny and Claude shorts. Instead, Larry Storch voices most of the characters in these shorts. While he tries his best, he's just not as funny as Blanc. Daws Butler is pretty good as the first voice of Merlin the Magic Mouse, but quit after only one short, leaving Storch to do the rest. #"See Ya Later Gladiator", the last short with the classic cast in the Seven Arts era, is often considered as the absolute worst Warner Bros. short by critics and fans due to its half-hearted animation (even using the same background for two shots of Daffy walking to a window, even though he’s in a completely different room both times), off-model character designs, uncharacteristic plot, bad music, and overuse of Hanna-Barbera sound effects. #The last Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies short, "Injun Trouble" was not a good way to end the theatrical era of Looney Tunes, as not only it was a cartoon consisting of the forgettable Cool Cat, but it was also forbidden due to the Native American stereotypes. #Despite that production of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts shifted from outsourced production at DePatie-Freleng Enterprises to in-house production at Warner Bros.-Seven Arts' cartoon studio in the late-1960s, even when veteran Robert McKimson returned as director in 1968, it flopped miserably, hence it ended up killing the Looney Tunes theatrical cartoon series and closing down the Warner Bros. cartoon studio in 1969, and wouldn't reopen to resume production of new Looney Tunes theatrical cartoons until 1987. Redeeming Qualities #Ten years later after the finale ended, Chuck Jones came back to produce new cartoons to air for television, effectively reviving and saving the series. #* Likewise, the Looney Tunes theatrical cartoons themselves get even better when new theatrical cartoons continued production in 1987 beginning with "The Duxorcist". #Even though some of the new characters like Cool Cat, Merlin the Magic Mouse, and Bunny and Claude are far from being perfect when compared to the other Looney Tunes stars, they were at least original and unique for what they are. #Aside from the era's "Big Four" characters Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, Porky Pig, Sylvester and Granny are the only other major Looney Tunes characters to appear in this era, even though they only made minor appearances in this era; #* Porky Pig appears in only two cartoons; "Corn on the Cop" and "Mucho Locos" (cameo appearance). #* Granny appears in only two cartoons; "It's Nice To Have A Mouse Around The House" (cameo appearance) and "Corn on the Cop". #* Sylvester appears in only five Speedy Gonzales cartoons; "Road To Andalay", "Cats and Bruises", "It's Nice To Have A Mouse Around The House" (cameo appearance), "The Wild Chase" and "A Taste of Catnip" (cameo appearance). #The DePatie-Freleng Enterprises cartoons aren't as bad as the Seven Arts cartoons, as the earlier production studio at least used a wider set of classic characters and sound effects and had slightly better animation. #*The Seven Arts cartoons would themselves get better after Alex Lovy departed and Looney Tunes veteran Robert McKimson returned as director. Speaking of which, Robert McKimson's Road Runner cartoons are far superior to Rudy Larriva's, even if he only made two Road Runner shorts. #Cool Cat and Merlin after this era would rarely appear, with both being mostly only making cameos in the spin-off show "The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries". #There are still a small amount of cartoons where Daffy Duck is likable, such as "Skyscraper Caper" where he is friends with Speedy instead of an enemy, "Fiesta Fiasco", where Daffy has an actual reason to be going after Speedy (thinking Speedy's forgotten his birthday) and makes up with him at the end of the cartoon, and "A Taste of Catnip" which essentially pokes fun at the idea of the Daffy/Speedy pairings as a horrible mismatch by depicting Daffy's obsessions of chasing Speedy to be abnormal. #*Thankfully, Daffy Duck would retain his old personality after this era. #*Likewise, the Road Runner would also retain his old personality once Chuck Jones resumed making new Road Runner cartoons for television. #While not the best cartoon, "Daffy's Diner" ended DePatie-Freleng Enterprises' run on a high note. #The awkward animation and music can make for unintentional comedy. #"Zip Zip Hooray!" and "Roadrunner a Go-Go" are still good shorts in this era, although this is because they use footage from the unsold pilot Adventures of the Road-Runner from 1962. #* Likewise, the first cartoon of the DePatie/Freleng run, "Pancho's Hideaway", is a good/decent short from 1964, hence it started this era on a high note. #* While not the best cartoon, "Suppressed Duck" was also another decent cartoon as well due to it being the only solo Daffy cartoon of the era which made it unique. #* While not the best Road Runner cartoons, "Rushing Roulette", "The Wild Chase", and "Sugar and Spies" were passable at best due to the cartoons not being directed by Rudy Larriva and instead by Robert McKimson and Friz Freleng, as well as the shorts having smoother animation and much funnier gags. #* Some of the Daffy and Speedy Gonzales shorts are decent at best like "Feather Finger", "Daffy's Diner", and "A Taste of Catnip". #* While not the best cartoon, "Corn on the Cop" was passable for what it is due to the cartoon being the final Daffy and Porky team up with a few decent gags, though, they could’ve done better with it. #"Norman Normal" is a cool experimental short that makes good use of the limited animation available in this era. #While not the best cartoon, the obscure Road Runner and Speedy Gonzales team-up; "The Wild Chase", which is Friz Freleng's final cartoon for Warner Brothers, is at least unique due to having not only Speedy and the Road Runner onscreen together for the first time ever, but also Sylvester and Wile E. Coyote onscreen together for the first time as well. It also did end Freleng's career on a high note and makes more sense than the Daffy/Speedy Gonzales team ups. #* While not the best Speedy Gonzales cartoons, the three Speedy Gonzales and Sylvester shorts "Road To Andalay", "Cats and Bruises" and "The Wild Chase" are slightly better than almost all the Daffy/Speedy shorts, since the Speedy/Sylvester pairings are much better character matches than the awkwardly mismatched Daffy/Speedy pairings, and had slightly better animation and funnier gags despite their plots being entirely made of reused gags from older, better cartoons from the classic era. #The intro music most specifically can be catchy, even if it's not as great as the past cartoons.